Electorate Not Very Excited About Race For U.s. Senate

The Florida Senate seat up for grabs in Tuesday`s primary contests and the November general election is being treated like the consolation prize no one wanted to claim.

Veteran Florida Democratic Sen. Lawton Chiles, after serving 17 years in the Senate and completing his first year as Senate Budget Committee chairman, decided suddenly last December that he didn`t want the seat beyond the term`s expiration in January 1989.

Most of the big-name candidates from both parties -- including former Democratic Gov. Reubin Askew, former GOP Sen. Paula Hawkins and Florida commerce secretary Jeb Bush -- took a look at the Senate seat and also turned down the opportunity.

Now the voters are exhibiting the same lack of interest.

This inattentive attitude on the part of the electorate contrasts sharply with voter behavior in the Senate race of just two years ago. In 1986, Florida voters seemed to follow intently the titanic battle between incumbent Sen. Hawkins and challenger Bob Graham, and the polls fluctuated like a kite in a hurricane with each new disclosure.

Almost two years ago to this day, Hawkins had climbed back to within three percentage points of Graham after being more than 20 points down in the spring.

But this year, despite a barrage of accusations and criticism against Democratic front-runner Bill Gunter, pollsters have been hard pressed to find any sign of life in the pulse of the electorate. Gunter`s ranking in the polls has continued to hover around 40 percent in the face of the attacks, while fervent challengers Dan Mica and Buddy MacKay have just barely been able to break into double digits.

Rep. MacKay, D-Ocala, was at 13 percent in the latest News/Sun-Sentinel poll released on Saturday, and Rep. Mica, D-Lake Worth, after eight months of campaigning, was only at 12 percent.

``It`s flat as it can be,`` said Gunter media strategist Raymond Strother of the voters` lack of reaction to the TV ads being run by Gunter, Mica and MacKay, and the charges being tossed back and forth.

``There`s been very little change in the past month,`` Strother said on Thursday.

What this means is that the voters, those few who actually turn out for the Democratic primary on Tuesday, may wait until they get into the voting booth to start paying attention to the race. If that happens, Gunter will likely be the beneficiary since he has the highest name recognition in the polls.

Or the voters may have been waiting until the final few days to ponder the race and consider the charges MacKay and Mica have been hurling against Gunter.

If that happens, then the gap between Gunter and the second-place finisher could narrow considerably in the remaining hours before Tuesday, setting the stage for an intriguing Oct. 4 run-off battle.